Meryl Carr’s dramatic three-hour ordeal started when she went to check on her sheep after noticing the river was much higher than usual.
She got trapped as she tried to save the animals from rising waters in a wooden shed at her home at Drumrunie, north of Ullapool.
The swollen River Runie uprooted a willow tree, which was carried downstream and into a wooden footbridge.
The crossing, which had stood for 30 years, was destroyed and the debris ended up jammed against a deer fence, damming the river and forcing the rising water into the Carrs’ garden.
It swelled by several feet and circled the sheep shed, trapping Mrs Carr, 59, who had to block the door to stop more pouring in.
She frantically baled water out of the windows for hours as the level reached the sheep’s stomachs.
Realising she was trapped, her husband Nigel contacted the fire service, who in turn alerted Inverness Coastguard.
The crew arrived at around 9am, with a boat to rescue the 12 sheep. Mrs Carr was led to safety and the flock was left inside the shed until the waters resided
Mrs Carr said: “The tree hauled the bridge away with it. Just around the corner we have a deer fence and the bridge got hooked up with it, and as a result the river just came this way, and the sheep shed was inundated, like it was an island.
“We did not know it at the time but everything was damming up and it was right up to thigh level for two hours.
“I think the dam must have broken after that because the water started to reside. But we would have been in trouble if it hadn’t.
“The sheep shed would have been washed away. I kept thinking, oh god, how are we going to get out of this?.”