The island is a remnant of the cone of an extinct volcano, and it protrudes steeply from the sea, mostly as sheer cliffs. The land area measures somewhere between 1.6 km² (400 acres) and 2.6 km² (640 acres). The highest point is 296 m (971 feet).
Christopher Columbus discovered Redonda in 1493 on his second journey. He claimed it for the Spanish crown, but did not land there. He named the island Santa María la Redonda, meaning Saint Mary the Round, reflecting the island's apparent profile when viewed from the side. In the 1860s, the island became a British possession.
The tiny island of Redonda is internationally known, in a minor way, for a curious on-going myth of the "Kings of Redonda", a story which interweaves fact and fiction. According to a (possibly imaginary) version of events, first recounted decades later by M.P. Shiel, a minor author of fantasy novels, in the year of his birth, 1865, his father Matthew Dowdy Shiell, from Montserrat, decided to celebrate his first male child by arranging (supposedly legitimately) for the boy to be crowned King of Redonda at the age of 15, in a ceremony purportedly carried out on the small island by a bishop.
