Kinvara (Irish: Cinn Mhara, meaning "head of the sea") is a sea port village located in the south of County Galway in the province of Connacht on the west coast of Ireland. Kinvara is also the name of the parish in which the village is situated. Kinvara is occasionally spelled Kinvarra in English; this may be seen on some maps and road signs, although Kinvara is the most common spelling used nowadays. Kinvarra is still the official form of the name for the townland as shown on OSI maps and this form is still used on polling cards as the name of the townland while the District Electoral Division (DED) is called Kinvara.

Kinvara's area population according to the 2006 Census was 1160. The Great Famine in the 1840s and a series of emigrations that continued up until the 1960s reduced the population of the village – once a thriving port and a significant exporter of corn and seaweed – to no more than a few hundred people. From around the 1980s the population of the parish of Kinvara started to increase while the village started to grow in size.