The Barrhaven area was long inhabited by First Nations peoples, and the modern Jockvale Road follows an ancient path that was originally a trail through the wilderness.

Modern Barrhaven was established in the 1960s, one of a group of new suburbs built outside the Greenbelt from the main city of Ottawa.

However the Rideau Carleton Raceway was built further to the east, and Barr instead decided to develop his land for housing.

Barrhaven was incorporated into the City of Nepean in 1978 and subsequently grew rapidly into a community of several tens of thousands of people.

The 1990s also saw the influx of high-tech companies into the area (such as JDS Uniphase and Nortel), and the growth of the Public Service in the National Capital Region.

[3] Like most North American suburbs built so quickly and so recently, Barrhaven has a very uniform feel, especially considering how big it is.

The main commercial district surrounds the intersection of Strandherd Drive and Greenbank Road, with a seven-screen cinema, Loblaws, Wal-Mart, Indigo Books and Music, Staples, Winners, Homesense, Farmboy, Sport Chek, Starbucks,[5] Your Independent Grocer, and Best Buy, among others.

The Minto Recreation Complex, a new multi-use community centre at the corner of Cambrian and Greenbank, opened in 2014.

[6][7] A major employment district was established in 2015 in the area west of Strandherd Drive adjacent to Highway 416, known as the CitiGate corporate campus.

Route 176 runs from the Fallowfield Station to Manotick, stopping in the growing Stonebridge community before travelling on the lower half of Jockvale before connecting with Prince of Wales Drive.

Until 2006, it had been planned that the north–south light-rail O-Train (today's Trillium Line) would be extended to the centre of Barrhaven near Riocan Marketplace via Riverside South.

On January 2, 2007, OC Transpo opened the Strandherd Transitway Station and Park & Ride lot in Barrhaven.

Directly across from the Riocan/Barrhaven Shopping Centre's Wal-Mart & TD Bank, the facility has parking space for about 330 cars.

It was built to help with overcrowding at the Fallowfield Station and meet the increased demand for park and ride spaces in the community.