It's shaping up to be a stonking night for the Scottish Conservatives.

They now hold five constituency seats, including a shock victory for party leader Ruth Davidson in Edinburgh Central.

Add to this a surprise win in Aberdeenshire West, as well as successes in Eastwood, Dumfriesshire, and Ayr, and it's clear the party's electoral strategy has paid off.

The Tories pitched their campaign to voters concerned about Scotland becoming a "one-party state" under the SNP, downplaying references to the Conservative Party on their literature and instead branding themselves as a "strong opposition" to the Nationalists.

The Tories now appear on course to become the second party of Scottish politics. If that indeed comes to pass, it will fall to Ruth Davidson to put the first questions to Nicola Sturgeon at First Minister's Questions. While there is technically no "leader of the opposition" in Scotland, Davidson will be seen as Sturgeon's main antagonist.

The result is a personal victory for Davidson but could also represent that long-awaited, much-promised, but previously never realised breakthrough for the Scottish Conservatives.