The city of Boston is in the midst of a benevolent invasion of gregarious, kilted visitors, who smell vaguely of pale lager and speak a lyrical language that, as it turns out, is English.

The Tartan Army — thousands of soccer fans from Scotland, here to see their national team play outside Boston in two matches of the World Cup — are packing this old city’s narrow streets, its subway cars, restaurants and pubs, and filling the air with the cry of bagpipes. The Scots are bursting out of historic Faneuil Hall, and the less historic but maybe more famous Cheers bar.

They have put a serious dent in the region’s strategic beer reserves, and have become social media darlings, as they gently prank their hosts by dunce-capping statues with traffic cones.

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“The peaceful invasion of the Tartan Army has made Boston the top World Cup host city,” Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston boasted in an interview. “There is nowhere you can go in the city right now without seeing someone in a kilt. It has been absolutely delightful.”

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