John Paul Jones Museum

The cottage was built around 1746 by William Craik for his gardener John Paul who was hired by his father Adam bout 1730. John Paul married Jean Duff in 1733 and went to live at Mill Hill about a mile south of the cottage where the first four of their seven children were born, until their cottage named Beancroft was built. Where two of his sisters were born and in 1747 John Paul Jnr was also born. He lived there and going to school at Kirkbean for about five years and helping his father around the garden until he was 13 years old when he went over to Whitehaven and got a berth as a master’s apprentice to Richard Bennison on board the Friendship a stout brig of 148-ton.

During his illustrious career he corresponded by letter with his mother, only

returning home a couple of times. When John Paul Snr died in 1767 his mother and any siblings that were still at home moved out, as the new gardener and his family were moving in. The cottage was occupied for many years thereafter but around the early 1830s it had fallen into disrepair, that is when Lt, Pinkham came to the rescue leaving money to the then laird William Craik’s grandson Douglas Hamilton Craik, to have the cottage repaired and reoccupied by a local fisherman’s widow. By 1895 the cottage was now occupied by the estate gamekeeper, for which a double kennel was built, this now forms part of the museum which was added on to the internal kennel building in early 2000

In 1992 the cottage was transferred into the John Paul Jones Birthplace Museum. With the inside of the cottage transformed back to what it would have looked like in John Paul’s youth.

Outside of the museum shop and cafe

Portrait of John Paul Jones

Old postcard of the cottage

Museum cottage interior