How does a view (/admin/build/views/) relate to a .tpl file I am new to Drupal and now maintaining a completed Drupal site and I am struggling to understand how it all came into existence :) 

What I have gathered from poking around the current code base is that there is some kind of relation from a view you create in the admin section to a .tpl file, and for the life of me I cannot figure out what it is.... am I even on the right track?

Any help or good reads would be much appreciated!
Actually, a view will use many template files (which you can override in a theme if desired); it depends a lot on how you configured your view (e.g. style, content).

The most useful information can be found when you're configuring your View. Just click Theme: Information in the Basic settings pane of your View, and the View itself will give you a list of tpl.php files that are used for rendering. Don't forget that there isn't only one tpl.php - there are many, and they wrap each other a lot (they're nested). Reading about generic Drupal theming will help a lot. The same rendering basics are used for Views.

If you want a template file for one specific View, look at the suggestions given by "Theme: Information." You can override any template file, for a specific View only (identified by its machine-name). This is probably what you're asking for, actually.

A good link on the subject is Theming Views.