Boston, Massachusetts - From drinking the bars dry to lustily serenading an iconic baseball stadium with a rendition of Flower of Scotland, the bagpipe-playing, kilt-wearing hordes of the Tartan Army have captivated Boston since arriving at the World Cup.

Scotland's famously good-natured traveling supporters had waited nearly 30 years for the chance to follow their team to a World Cup, and the thousands who have made the journey to the tournament are merrily making up for lost time, to the delight of Bostonians.

"Oh my God, they're amazing. I have enjoyed so much watching them enjoy the city," Cara DiBenedetto, a 54-year-old resident of Boston's North End, told AFP.

"It's really kind of renewed my love of Boston because I'm seeing them see things that I take for granted and it's been great."

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Reports have put the estimated number of Scottish fans in the Massachusetts city for the team's opening World Cup game against Haiti last weekend at 40-50,000, and a fresh wave is expected for Scotland's second match against Morocco on Friday.

The Tartan Army were a welcome feature of many major tournaments towards the end of the last century.

But before this year they had not qualified for a World Cup since 1998, and fans jumped at the chance to cross the Atlantic to follow Steve Clarke's team, not remotely put off by the cost of tickets or the current political climate in the US.

They saw their team beat Haiti 1-0 thanks to a John McGinn goal in front of a majority of Scottish fans in the 64,000 crowd at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, 20 miles south of downtown Boston.

"I didn't realize until we actually stepped out onto the pitch just quite how many Scottish people were there," said midfielder Lewis Ferguson.

"Our support is never in doubt. They will travel everywhere, they always have and always will."

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Fans then returned into the city to celebrate the only way they know how – NBC News said one bar ran out of its local lager over the weekend "because Scottish soccer fans drank it dry."

"They're great, man. They're great, great people. They showed us nothing but respect," said Chris Wildt, a 49-year-old bartender at the Black Rose.

"They're a little bigger drinkers than we thought, but we appreciate it."

On Sunday, after nursing their hangovers, Scottish fans marched together to Fenway Park to watch the Major League Baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers.