Cows on the Loose in Carfin After 124mph Storm Floris Winds Flatten Fences

North Lanarkshire residents stunned as a runaway herd charges through the streets in the wake of Scotland’s fiercest storm in years.

Moo-vement on the Streets After Storm Tears Through Fences

They weren’t expecting cows. Not on a Monday.

Residents of Carfin, a quiet village in North Lanarkshire, got more than just flying bins and fallen branches when Storm Floris hit on August 4. They got a stampede.

Footage shared online showed a herd of around 20 cows trotting down residential streets after fences meant to keep them penned in were smashed apart by ferocious winds — peaking at a staggering 124mph in parts of Scotland.

This wasn’t your average farmyard wander.

cows running on street in carfin scotland after storm floris

“The Cows Are Out in Force”

Darren Young, a local resident, captured the surreal scene on video and shared it on Facebook. In the clip, neighbours can be seen watching, slack-jawed, as the herd takes over the street.

Some cows huddle together at the end of the road, looking bewildered. Six others bolt past homes, clearly spooked but determined to stay with the group.

Young captioned the post: “For anyone out and about in Carfin looks like a couple of fences have been blown down and the cows are out in force.”

No one seemed quite sure what to do — except film.

Scotland’s Strongest Gusts in Years

Storm Floris didn’t arrive quietly.

The brutal summer storm brought winds reaching 124mph — the highest recorded speed during the event — with Scotland taking the brunt of the destruction.

Train services were suspended. Trees collapsed onto roads and houses. Caravans flipped like toys in the wind. In seaside towns, waves slammed into shorelines, leaving behind mangled barriers and flooded paths.

One small paragraph: Jet2 aircraft at Leeds Bradford Airport struggled to land, its wings rocking violently in the gale.

And in Carfin, fences didn’t stand a chance.

Chaos, but No Casualties

Luckily, no people — or cows — were reported injured.

Local authorities moved quickly to coordinate with the cattle’s owner, and within a few hours the animals were safely rounded up and returned to their field.

Still, the moment offered a strange sort of levity in a day dominated by damage reports.

It’s not every day cows become the news in a windstorm. But on this particular Monday, they were the headline act.

Herd on the Hoof: Social Media Reacts

Unsurprisingly, the footage blew up online almost as fast as the storm itself.

Comments ranged from the humorous to the heartfelt, with users chiming in from across the UK.

A few memorable ones:

  • “The wind literally blew the beef out of the barn.”

  • “Why did the cows cross the street? Because Storm Floris said so.”

  • “Forget flying pigs — Scotland’s got sprinting cows.”

One user joked they hoped the cows had “better insurance than my roof.”

Scotland’s Ongoing Battle With Storm Floris

While the cow caper stole the spotlight, the wider picture remains grim.

Storm Floris has wreaked havoc across northern Britain:

  • 90mph winds toppled hundreds of trees across Aberdeenshire and the Highlands.

  • Train lines in Fife, the Borders, and Inverclyde were shut down for hours.

  • Glasgow Airport faced flight delays as gusts battered runways.

  • Power cuts affected nearly 40,000 homes across central and southern Scotland.

It wasn’t just dramatic — it was dangerous.

The Met Office issued an amber “danger to life” warning as winds reached hurricane force in exposed areas.

Table of key storm stats (Scotland-specific):

Location Wind Speed (mph) Notable Impact
Cairngorm Summit 124 Record gusts, structural damage
Aberdeenshire 102 Widespread tree falls, road closures
North Lanarkshire 97 Fence collapses, cattle escape
Fife 91 Train services suspended

For all the laughs about cows taking over the cul-de-sac, there’s a real issue underneath: climate-driven storms are getting more frequent, more violent — and more unpredictable.

Storm Floris struck in August. That’s summer. And yet winds were stronger than some winter storms from previous years.

Scotland’s infrastructure — including agricultural fencing — wasn’t built with this in mind.

One sentence here: A loose cow is funny until it’s running across a motorway.

This time, the cows ran through a housing estate and made people chuckle. Next time, the story might not end so harmlessly.

A Moo-ment to Remember

For now, though, Carfin will go down in local legend for the day the cows took a stroll and became internet stars.

No one was hurt. The fences can be fixed. But the video — that’s forever.

And somewhere out in North Lanarkshire, 20 cows are probably wondering what the heck just happened.

By Ishan Crawford

Prior to the position, Ishan was senior vice president, strategy & development for Cumbernauld-media Company since April 2013. He joined the Company in 2004 and has served in several corporate developments, business development and strategic planning roles for three chief executives. During that time, he helped transform the Company from a traditional U.S. media conglomerate into a global digital subscription service, unified by the journalism and brand of Cumbernauld-media.

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