Independence campaigners have been evicted from their camp outside at the Scottish Parliament.

The indycamp was set up outside Holyrood 11 months ago, with campaigners vowing to stay at the site until Scotland gained independence.

However, the group were served with an eviction notice after being taken to court by the Scottish Parliament's corporate body.

The camp was fenced off on Friday from about 8am, with tents removed and caravans towed away.

The eviction was carried out by officers of the court, with support from Police Scotland.

It followed a final request from the Scottish Parliament's Corporate Body (SPCB) for the campaigners to leave.

The group said its removal was unfair and it has applied for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court in London.

The IndyCamp group lost its appeal against the Court of Session judgment in October, allowing the SPCB to immediately apply to the court for an order to remove the camp.

IndyCamp member Garry said: "There's an appeal (to the Supreme Court) that's been put in against the decision and due process should be being followed here.

"They have come in on top of us and removed the camp. Given that the appeal is in, we would have thought we would have got to stay during the appeal."

He added: "The way things stand at the moment we have lost the case twice.

"Will we come back to this site? Probably not. I don't want arrested - it's a peaceful vigil. As you can see even today, it's been nice and peaceful."

Gayle, who was in a tent on the edge of the site when the eviction began, said: "We were all rudely woken up. They came, they shook it up. I had only just woken up.

"They said that they were the bailiffs and they had the right to remove everything."

She added: "How do I feel? Angry, I feel sad. Angry especially, because everybody's fundamental rights have been ripped from underneath them."

The Parliament said the camp had damaged land, which has been fenced off to allow "remedial work" to begin.

Campaigners set up the camp 343 days ago. However, the Parliament's corporate body took legal action to evict campers after the group was endangering the neutrality of the parliamentary estate.

A spokesperson said: "The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body have consistently requested that the protesters respect the judgment of the court and leave the Parliament estate peacefully and of their own accord.

"As a result of their continued refusal to do, the SPCB had no option but to have the camp removed today."

The Parliament spokesman added: "The SPCB has followed due process throughout this action.

"The order granted by the Court of Session to remove the camp remained valid and enforceable regardless of whether leave was sought for an appeal to the Supreme Court and the Parliament was entitled to enforce it today following the repeated refusal of the protesters to remove the camp voluntarily."