Making the case for Scotland to remain in the UK is "perhaps more challenging" than arguing for a "flashy new vision" of independence, the Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has said.

Ms Davidson said the time had now come for supporters of the Union to "throw off their queasiness about defending and advancing our position".

Speaking in Edinburgh, she insisted work by her party to look at the possibility of more powers being transferred north was not just "about buying off the Nats".

Ms Davidson hailed the relationship between Scotland and England as a "magnificent thing" but accepted: "The 300-year-old Union we are defending has been around for so long, it can seem burdened by over-familiarity."

She said independence campaigners "will use all the fireworks available as they try and sell us their new product". She added: "Alex Salmond will do his PT Barnum act, and the circus will no doubt be full of pzazz."

Ms Davidson went on: "But we have to recognise that it's perhaps more challenging to make the case for continuation than for a flashy new vision - however flimsy it may be."

She said those who wanted Scotland to remain in the UK must "not to be too defensive" and urged people to "celebrate our inheritance" and "see what previously we have taken for granted".

The Tory leader, speaking at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, said while many people were "reluctant patriots" the "time has now come for pro-Unionists to throw off their queasiness about defending and advancing our position".

She added: "Perhaps the voice of the majority in Scotland and the rest of the UK will never be quite so vociferous as our opponents in this debate - history shows that has never really been our way.