Ruth Davidson, the Former Scottish Conservatives leader has apologised after appearing to tweet out the rough location of a UK spy chief's home in Scotland.

In a now-deleted tweet, the MSP said that MI6 chief Alex Younger's house was "within line-of-sight" of a named location in the country.

A statement from a Scottish Conservatives spokesman said: "Ruth thought she was sending the tweet as a private message, and as soon as she realised it was public took it down.

"She feels like a right pillock for this mistake, and wishes to apologise very sincerely to Mr Younger."

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The tweet came after it was announced that Ken McCallum had been appointed as the new head of MI5.

After it was pointed out that McCallum was from Glasgow, SNP MP Stewart McDonald stated that Younger had studied in Scotland.

Davidson then added: “And splits his time between Edinburgh and London. His house is within line-of-sight of [named location] …”

Commenting on the apology, McDonald said: "It's not the biggest story of the day, but it's worth pausing to reflect on what a monumental error of judgement this represents on Ruth Davidson's part.

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Angus Robertson, the former SNP deputy leader who was a member of Westminster’s intelligence and security committee, said: “This is quite extraordinary and utterly reckless by Ruth Davidson. Why on earth she thought it was a good idea to publicise the home location of the head of MI6 is utterly beyond me.”

"A private DM is hardly any better. Privy Councillors playing fast and loose with security shouldn't be on the Privy Council."