Finnås

Finnås is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county, Norway. The 225 km2 municipality, which existed from 1838 until 1916, was located in the traditional district of Sunnhordland. Originally, the municipality encompassed all of the island of Bømlo, the small surrounding islands, and the mainland located south of the Bømlafjorden. It was located in the present-day municipalities of Bømlo and Sveio.

The Kulleseid Canal is a canal that was built in the 1800s on a small isthmus on the island of Bømlo. It enabled boats to journey between the east and west sides of Bømlo island. Today the channel is surrounded by a small trading center and tourist center, and it is a popular guest harbor.

History
The parish of Findaas was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1865, the southern mainland district of Findaas (population: 2,237) and the Vikebygd area of the neighboring municipality of Fjelberg (population: 1,062) were merged to form the new municipality of Sveen. On 1 January 1868, a small part of Finnaas (population: 10) was transferred to the neighboring municipality of Fitje. On 1 April 1870, the Øklandsgrend area (population: 247) was transferred from Finnaas to the neighboring municipality of Stord. The spelling of the name changed slightly over time from Findaas to Finnaas and then finally to Finnås.

On 1 July 1916, the municipality of Finnås was split to create three new (smaller) municipalities:
 * Bremnes (population: 3,411), the 120 km2 northern/western half of the island of Bømlo and smaller surrounding islands
 * Moster (population: 1,316), the 67 km2 southeastern peninsula on the island of Bømlo, the island of Moster, and the smaller surrounding islands
 * Bømmel (population: 1,217), the 38.5 km2 southwestern peninsula on the island of Bømlo and smaller surrounding islands (later renamed Bømlo).

On 1 January 1963, the three municipalities were merged into a new, larger Bømlo Municipality.

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the Finnaas farm since the Old Moster Church was built there. The name is relative new name with very little historical record. The first element is finn which is the local name for a type of grass known as Nardus stricta. The last element is which means "hill". Thus it means a hill with "finn" grass. During its time as a municipality, it was always spelled Finnaas. On 21 December 1917 (after the municipality had been dissolved and merged into Bømlo), a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled Finnaas with the digraph "aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled Finnås, using the letter å instead. Since then, when referring to the old municipality, the new spelling is used, but the letter "å" was never used while the municipality existed.

Notable people

 * Haldor Andreas Haldorsen (1883–1965), a politician elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Hordaland
 * Ola Olsen (1891–1973), a politician elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Hordaland
 * Gerhard Meidell Gerhardsen (1885–1931), a bailiff and politician for the Conservative Party and Centre Party
 * Gerhard Meidell Gerhardsen (1912–1986), an economist