I had handpulled cider a couple of times while I was in England and it is very nice. Nothing like the pasturized keg stuff. Having brewed beer since I was 15 years old, I can relate to exploding bottles. My best experience was when I lived in a small apartment where I stored my beer in a closet, I was sitting in the living room when I heard a machine-gun like pop-pop-pop x 12. Turned out that a whole case of porter blew-up in a chain reaction
Took hours to clean the mess, even had to throw some clothes away and lost half of my stash 
Roy, I had a great trip in the wild North of Scotland. The midges were nothing compared to what we get back here (and I was outdoor a lot...) Plus, Scotland has a fabulous climate for drinking, you could drink Port 12 months a year there with no heat issues
These pictures were taken between showers...
Isle of Mull (Ben More)
Isle of Skye (Cullins mountains)
Dorset coast in SW England
Steve