John Paul Jones Museum

John Paul Jones Museum Review

The little community of Kirkbean (blink and you'll miss it), 12 mi south of Dumfries, is the backdrop for Arbigland Estate. It was in a cottage, now the John Paul Jones Museum, in this bright green landscape that John Paul (1747-92), the son of an estate gardener, was born. He eventually left Scotland, added "Jones" to his name, and became the founder of the U.S. Navy. The cottage where he was born is furnished as it would have been when he was a boy. Jones returned to raid the coastline of his native country in 1778, an exploit recounted in an adjoining visitor center.