Tom HamiltonJun 18, 2026, 03:16 AM ETClose• Joined ESPN in 2011 • Covered two Olympics, a pair of Rugby World Cups and two British & Irish Lions tours • Previously rugby editor, and became senior writer in 2018
BOSTON -- You heard them before you saw them. On Sunday around the city, it wasn't difficult to catch a glimpse of the thousands of Scotland fans snaking through the city from Evans Way Park to Fenway Park, led by a cohort of bagpipes. There hasn't been much to cheer for Red Sox fans this year, but on a warm Sunday evening in glorious Boston, Scotland's supporters provided them a moment of escapism from their eventual defeat to the Texas Rangers.
It was called "Scotland Day." The Red Sox's mascot, Wally, wore a kilt; the team's in-house organist played several Scottish hits after spending the week studying sheet music. It was a party -- another party in a city that had already seen so many over the preceding days.
After the rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner," with the American flag still draped over the Green Monster, Scotland's fans, spread in their thousands above the bullpen and dotted around the famous old baseball park, responded with "Flower of Scotland." It didn't reach the same decibel level as the version sung in Foxborough the night before for Scotland's World Cup opener, but it was the sort where dyed-in-the-wool Red Sox fans either sat in stunned silence, clapped or instinctively reached for their phone to capture the moment. Some attempted all three.
Scotland's fans have been the talk of Boston. Thousands made the trip over the Atlantic to watch their men's team play in a World Cup for the first time in 28 years.
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Scotland have never made the knockout stages of the tournament, and their win over Haiti was just their fifth World Cup triumph -- and their first since 1990. But hope is a double-edged sword: It's sharp, cruel and also why we watch sports. "Maybe, maybe not," came the response from those fans as they disembarked on U.S. soil.
By the time you reached Boston on Friday, the world's media had run several stories on how planes had run out of beer. "It was water or wine," Scotland fan James said at breakfast Friday. He'd traveled via Schiphol in Amsterdam with his dad, Richard. "We waited 28 years for this -- with dad being 72, you just never know if this will be the last," James said. Their flight was delayed, a puff of smoke from one engine enough to halt plans on the tarmac in Amsterdam, but eventually they got going, and the beer was soon gone.
The front page of Friday's Boston Globe newspaper was focused on the Scotland fans. Stories of bars packed to the bursting point and full of familiar song, the same anthems that have carried Scotland through their Euro 2024 campaign and World Cup qualifying. Wherever you turned, you heard songs of how "super" John McGinn is or how the bottom line is "No Scotland, No Party."
There was the story of Boston resident Mike Morrison waking up early June 11 to the sound of bagpipes. Scotland fans had rented the house opposite him with flags draped from the window. He welcomed them for a barbecue, and the story caught a woman called Helen McDonald's eye. She found him a ticket for the Scotland match, with the Red Sox hosting her Sunday in return.
In the dead of night the Scots arrived at the Airbnb across the street. Decked out and playing the pipes at 6:30 am. So it begins... pic.twitter.com/LczU1loVXp— Mike Morrison (@MDMorrison82) June 11, 2026
In the dead of night the Scots arrived at the Airbnb across the street. Decked out and playing the pipes at 6:30 am. So it begins... pic.twitter.com/LczU1loVXp
On Friday evening, a charity event to aid Street Soccer Scotland charity took place in Boston. The event's origins date back from the 1998 World Cup, and as those in attendance nearly 30 years ago remember, it was the ultimate Tartan party: Sir Alex Ferguson was spotted wearing a Viking helmet, while Sir Sean Connery was dancing and singing in the Buddha-Bar in Paris. They planned to do it four years later, but instead it was rekindled for Euro 2024 and repeated in the U.S. again last week, with actors Gerard Butler, Martin Compston, Tony Curran and broadcaster Gordon Smart among those attending.
When I spoke to Smart on Sunday, his voice was hoarse. There was a video of him singing halfway up a lamppost taken a few hours earlier. "We just couldn't afford to go to France in '98, it was just too expensive, you know? We just assumed because Scotland has such a good record and qualification, it wouldn't be an issue.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Gordon Smart (@gordonsmart)
A post shared by Gordon Smart (@gordonsmart)
"Well, between World Cups, I've got a 16-year-old son now, a 13-year-old daughter, I've seen countless general elections, a referendum of independence, a referendum in Europe. But watching Scotland-Haiti was worth every single second."
That begs the question, why have thousands made the trip? What's the need to be here?
"I think it's the escapism of it," he said. "Life can be really tough, and there's a spirit that's quite hard to understand until you've been a part of it where everywhere you go, you feel welcome, and you meet somebody from a different corner of Scotland or the world. I've met Scots living in Kuala Lumpur, some who live in Boston. Then you bump into Highlanders, Lowlanders, Glaswegians, people from the islands.
"It's such a brilliant gathering. You make friends for life on these trips."
"I still hear stories about guys from some Tartan Army fans who never came back from Mexico '86 and moved to a jungle in Belize. I used to think the stories were apocryphal, but they're not. They're real. People will get married off the back of their trip to Boston.
"It's also a chance to just forget about all the mundanity and misery that exists," he said. "There's a sort of a childlike abandon to it. The camaraderie of youth is beautiful. And it's intergenerational as well, the young people with their grandparents, men, women, every background is represented. We all listened to stories of '78, '82, '86, Italia '90, and now it's our chance to be passed the baton."
There were countless other stories of why fans from the Scottish diaspora had made the trip. There were Scottish expats who made the journey from Australia. Craig Ferguson, 22, walked more than 3,000 miles in a kilt from Los Angeles in a bid to raise seven figures for SAMH (Scottish Action for Mental Health). His challenge finished in Boston Common last Friday, with a couple of thousand Scots welcoming him. By Sunday at Fenway Park, he was handling every selfie and photo request; a day later, he launched a campaign to find his lost, beloved kilt.
Inside Fenway Park, Leo was sitting with his family including his dad, Archie. They were decked out in the special shirts produced for the occasion -- a Red Sox-Scotland combo, handed out free to Scotland supporters who'd made the trip. Back in 1996, Leo and his dad signed up for the Scotland fans group in a bid to get tickets for the 1998 World Cup. They failed. "We thought at the time: That's OK, it'll only be another four years, we can go again in 2002," Leo said. After the 28-year wait, they weren't going to miss this opportunity.
Colin, 68, was propping up the bar in one central Boston hotel late Sunday night, nursing a double whiskey (far larger than he anticipated) with a block of ice. We attempted to unpack the pilgrimage Scotland fans make and why they "just have to be here" -- the refrain you hear from every fan you speak to.
Back home, the domestic game is dominated by Rangers or Celtic, who always finish with the end-of-season silverware. St. Mirren won the Scottish League Cup last December, and Hearts (from Edinburgh) came within 90 minutes of winning the 2025-26 Scottish Premiership, but champions from outside Glasgow are rare under the "Old Firm" duopoly. Colin believes following the national team gives fans of other clubs the chance to experience big-time football; because their teams don't qualify for European trips, the national team ends up being the best way to satisfy such wanderlust. Colin has a friend from Stornoway (a town in the Outer Hebrides) who travels to Scotland games both home and away.
Colin also believed that Scotland fans feel pride at the impact they have on a host city. Take Cologne in Euro 2024. Scotland's fans packed the city and emptied the pubs of beer, but they also danced and sang in Alter Markt amid frequent torrential downpours. Ahead of this World Cup, the city's FC Cologne sent the Scotland team and its fans a good luck message.
It has been the same in Boston, with the pubs and bars certainly enjoying their gregarious presence. There's the official Scotland House (usually known as The Anchor) in Naval Shipyard Park, but a couple of miles west of Fenway Park is a pub called The Haven. Just two years after he traveled to the 1998 World Cup, Jason Waddleton moved to Boston, and in 2010, he built his very Scottish pub.
"When I saw the draw and that Scotland were playing two games in Boston, there was so much excitement but also a bit of trepidation," Waddleton told ESPN. "We made a joke, like 'Game of Thrones': Winter is coming. Are we ready for this? It's been incredible." He ordered 150 kegs of Scottish lager for the World Cup, and by his estimation, he's likely to have emptied them all by the time Scotland face Morocco on Friday.
"It's got busier day after day, and then by Saturday night for the game itself against Haiti, we had close to 1,000 people watching the game here, all in a Scottish context. They brought the party." Another bar owner said they'd never sold so much beer before. "Busy? Yes, this has been St. Patrick's Day-busy," he said.
Waddleton knew it was always going to be like this, and he has enjoyed the Scottish camaraderie. "You've got the 28 years aspect, right? It's been a while, and there are people sitting there ready to smoke. You've got two generations of football fans who've never even been able to go to a World Cup.
"The other thing is, people just love expressing our national identity, where everyone can tell their own story," he said. "This is who we are, where we're from, what we do, and all in a lubricant fashion! Everyone singing 'Caledonia' together -- it's a beautiful, beautiful moment. I've been selling this to the American locals for 26 years, and now they can see it for themselves."
There are big plans for the Scottish contingent in Miami ahead of their match with Brazil next Wednesday. The iconic Clevelander South Beach hotel will be turned tartan, but before that, there's the small matter of facing Morocco on Friday. Boston has again teemed this week with Scottish shirts and fans exploring the surrounding areas, catching up with long lost friends and speculating on whether Steve Clarke will go with one or two up front for the next group stage match. The party isn't stopping any time soon.
On Sunday at Fenway Park, Scotland fans had sung their way through their entire repertoire the seventh-inning stretch: "We'll Be Coming (Down the Road)," "Super John McGinn," "500 Miles," "No Scotland, No Party" -- and then came the whole stadium joining them to sing "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie." A group of Scotland fans in their early 30s stood at the top of the stand next to the Green Monster. It was their second major tournament following Scotland, and their first baseball game.
In the seventh inning, one of the Rangers players flied out to left. "I f---ing love baseball -- and Boston," a Scottish fan called John shouted. Well, it's fair to say Boston feels the same about the Tartan Army.
Source: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49096885/scotland-tartan-army-world-cup-boston-haiti-red-sox-fenway-park
