My little piece of Scotland

There may be no electricity, but along with the gas lights, singing sands and cowrie shells, that's part of Eigg's charm

MY FAVOURITE place in Scotland is Eigg because it is so quiet and remote. I went there two years ago with my local Great Auks Club, which is a children's environmental group. We stayed there for about a week. Everyone stayed in a hostel, but my mum, dad, my sister and I stayed in a bothy with no electricity.

On the first day we went to a lovely beach and saw a golden eagle. I really love going there and I might be going to Eigg for my birthday. I will really love going back. The scenery is amazing.

One day we did a beach clean and on another we saw a slide show of the history of Eigg and about the wildlife.

The people who live on Eigg are very friendly and the Scottish wildlife warden took us on a walking tour. I especially liked collecting cowries and we had a competition to see who could collect the most.

We also visited the singing sands which made a rather rude noise when you stood on them. This is created by quartz grains which rub together to make that noise, which is not at all like singing.

I was a bit disappointed to hear that Eigg has now got a wind turbine to supply its own electricity because I liked having the bothy lit by gas, but I am sure that the people on Eigg will be delighted to be able to do their washing and use a hair drier when they want to.

There is a school there with about eight pupils. It is very small. We went to Eigg for part of our John Muir Trust Award and for this we had to write a diary about what we did on Eigg. I wrote a lot about the bothy we stayed in. This is one of my diary entries:

Today we are going to do a beach clean. Ruth found a swing just outside the bothy and we played on it after breakfast at the hostel. Me, Ruth and our friends Cara and Maya collected cowries at the beach by the ferry.

Rachel Bolwell, nine, Argyll