The largest ship ever built for the Royal Navy has left the dockyard where she was assembled for the first time.

The 65,000-tonne HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier was towed out of Rosyth on Monday afternoon - eight years after construction began.

The painstaking operation to launch the 920ft-long vessel involved manoeuvring her between a narrow lock, leaving just 1.5 metres of clearance on either side of her hull.

After anchoring in the Forth, the ship will later sail beneath the three bridges which link Fife to the Lothians - including the new Queensferry Crossing.

HMS Queen Elizabeth will undergo sea trials over the summer before becoming the Royal Navy's flagship.

Shipyards around the UK built different sections of the vessel, with 10,000 people working on the construction project, before she was put together in Rosyth.

When operational, the ship will have a crew of about 700 and be able to carry dozens of aircraft including the F-35B fighter jet.

Captain Jerry Kyd said the ship would return to Rosyth after initial trials in the North Sea.

Speaking ahead of the launch, he said: "After that we're going back out for a further three weeks to test the ship on the more war-fighting capabilities - the radars, all the ship's sensors, radios and things like that.

"At the end of that period we know that all the basics work.

"She's done her test drive and after that we will go down to Portsmouth, the ship's home, and get her finally ready to join the Royal Navy fleet, hopefully at the end of the year."

The second ship in the class, HMS Prince of Wales, is being fitted out and will also be launched from Rosyth.