The combined parish of Garvald and Bara, borders Whittingehame to the East, Morham to the North, Yester to the West, and Lauder to the South.

[1] The specifier may be either *garw, "rough, harsh, rugged, uncultivated",[1] or a derivative of *gār, "a word" (perhaps adjectivally meaning "calling, crying, noisy").

The name of the stream upon which the village is situated, the Papana Water, appears to have been imported, given by nuns who came from Italy and settled down at nearby Nunraw.

At one time there were two breweries, three public houses, besides bakers, tailors, weavers, shoemakers, blacksmiths, wrights, coopers, grocers, etc., in the village.

In 1829 the contractor (and possibly the designer) John Swinton, from Haddington, completely remodelled the church in 1829, which included four Gothic windows and the Western belfry.

In the Cold War, Garvald was the site of an underground Royal Observer Corps Monitoring Post, still extant and situated in a field only a few metres from a public footpath.

Acta Dominorum Concilii records a dispute in 1501 between Jonet, prioress of the Convent of Haddington, and Sir Robert Lauder of The Bass, knight, regarding the lands and chapellany of Garvald.

In 1890 the proprietors in Garvald parish were: the Marquess of Tweeddale, the Earl of Wemyss, Arthur James Balfour of Whittingehame, Walter W Gray of Nunraw, and Robert Edgar of Linplum & Bara.