Skudeneshavn

History

The village of Skudeneshavn was declared to be a ladested (port town) on 10 February 1858. Since towns were not allowed to be part of a rural municipality, Skudeneshavn was removed from Skudenes Municipality, and established as its own urban municipality. Initially, Skudeneshavn Municipality had 1,209 residents. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the town-municipality of Skudeneshavn was merged into the newly formed Karmøy Municipality (along with Skudenes Municipality, Avaldsnes Municipality, Stangaland Municipality, Torvastad Municipality and the town of Kopervik). Prior to the merger, Skudeneshavn Municipality had 1,275 residents. At the time of the merger, Skudeneshavn lost its status as a town (ladested). In 1996, after the law on towns had been changed, Karmøy Municipality declared Skudeneshavn to be a town once again. The town (originally the municipality and parish) is named after the Skudenes peninsula () at the south end of the island of Karmøy. The first element is the genitive case of which means "rock wall that is sticking out", referring to the rocky islets and skerries that lie just off the shore of the peninsula. The second element is which means "headland". The last element is which means "harbor" or "port".