Although uninhabited, the island (along with Sula Sgeir) is included in the Western Isles Council electoral ward of An Taobh Siar agus Nis, the Scottish Parliament constituency of Na h-Eileanan an Iar, the electoral region of Highlands and Islands, and the UK Parliament constituency of Na h-Eileanan an lar.

A number of simple cross-slabs of early medieval date are preserved within the structure, probably the grave markers of Dark Age monks or hermits from Scotland or Ireland.

Writing in the 16th century Dean Monro wrote: Towards the north northeist from Lewis, three score myles of sea, lyes ane little ile callit Ronay, laiche maine lande, inhabit and manurit be simple people, scant of ony religione.

'"[15] Morison also reported that there were five families living there who "take their surname from the colour of the sky, rainbow, and clouds" and that "they repeat the Lord’s Prayer, Creed, and Ten Commandments in the chapel every Sunday morning.

[11] A Dr. MacCulloch landed on the island in 1815 and recorded that the inhabitants were the shepherd, Kenneth MacCagie, his wife and three children and his elderly mother living in a house that was largely underground.

[11] Scottish Victorian historian John Swinburne recorded that on one occasion between 1811 and 1847, a crew from Ness in Lewis had their boat wrecked in landing at Sula Sgeir in the month of June, and lived on the island for several weeks, sustaining themselves on the flesh of birds.

Captain Benjamin Oliver, who commanded the revenue cruiser Prince of Wales, visited Sula Sgeir in the month of August to look for the boat and "found the wreck of it, also an oar on end with an old pair of canvas trousers on it, and over the remains of a fire a pot containing birds' flesh; but there being no trace of the men, it was thought they must have been picked up by a passing vessel."

Nothing further was heard of them until October of that year, when a Russian vessel on her homeward voyage met a Stornoway craft in Orkney "and informed the crew of the latter that they had taken the men off Sula Sgeir and landed them in Rona."

In June 1884, two men from Lewis, Malcolm MacDonald and Murdo Mackay, having reportedly had a dispute with the minister of their local church, went to stay on Rona to look after the sheep.

[22] During World War I, the commander of German U-boat U-90, Walter Remy, stopped his submarine at North Rona during each of his wartime patrols, weather permitting, and sent crewmen onto the island to shoot sheep to obtain mutton for on-board consumption.

[23] Evidence for this was provided by American prisoner of war Edouard Izac who was captured from a lifeboat after the sinking of the troopship USS President Lincoln on 31 May 1918; U-90 was in service from August 1917 onwards and had previously shelled the Hirta radio station on St Kilda on 15 May 1918.

[24] Stuart Crawford, writing for the UK Defence Journal, notes that the war diary of U-90 "stated that it shot 7 sheep to augment crew rations on the 5th June 1918"; he also recalls a local story from Islay that an unnamed German tourist visiting in 1921 spoke of landing several times at Glas Uig (near Ardtalla) whilst serving in a U-boat.

[25] In terms of the probability of other landings, Rona was undefended and over 300 U-boats were active in the war, mostly in the North Atlantic; however, 200 were lost in action and many personal accounts from submarine crewmen and officers were therefore not recorded for history.

[26] The island was occupied temporarily in 1938 and 1939 by author and conservationist Frank Fraser Darling with his wife Bobbie and their son Alasdair, while they studied the grey seals and the breeding seabirds.