The cova de Can Rata (Cova de Can Rata) owes its name to an old house of that name, of which only a few stones of a wall remain, visible on the track to Can Bosc.

The cave has been used since distant times, probably to keep livestock, as shown by the dry-stone walls that close the entrance and the smoke-blackened walls. It is known that between the decades of 1940 and 1950 a young woman from Tortellà, named Adela, lived there in her youth. They say she looked after the herd and the cave served as her home.

From the speleological point of view, the first written reference is found in the book 'Santa Maria del Mont. Notícia històrica d'aquest santuari', published in 1931 and authored by Pere Vayreda Olivas (1877-1944). The book ends with some appendices, the first of which is entitled 'Balmes i habitacions humanes primitives que hi ha esparses per la muntanya'. Without intending to, Pere Vayreda had published the first speleological catalogue of the Alta Garrotxa, in which 21 cavities located in the mountains surrounding the sanctuary of the Mont are mentioned. Among them the cova de Can Rata (Cova de Can Rata) and the balma d'en Birol (Balma d'en Birol), although he did not know their location.

As a consequence of this catalogue, Francesc Miret mentions the cova de Can Rata (Cova de Can Rata) in the book 'Coves de l'Alta Garrotxa' (1999), of which he is co-author together with Martí García. The same data are reproduced in the 'Catàleg Espeleològic de Catalunya', Vol-3 year 2009, by Jordi de Valles. In both cases they limit themselves to recording the existence of this cavity, without adding any other data to those provided by Pere Vayreda.