The site also includes a hotel and conference centre, and Crichton Memorial Church, set in a 100-acre (40-hectare) park.

The last, and grandest, of Scotland's royal asylums was founded in Dumfries in 1838 by Elizabeth Crichton of Friars Carse (1779–1862), a wealthy local widow.

Browne remained at the Crichton for almost twenty years (1838-1857) and made a decisive contribution to asylum psychiatry, setting benchmark standards in therapeutic administration.

The Crichton became widely known in the twentieth century for psychiatric research under the leadership of German Jewish émigrés, including Dr Willi Mayer-Gross.

An unidentified female patient of Dr James Gilchrist was featured as an illustration (Figure 19) in Charles Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872).

[8] The hospital was expanded in the late 19th century, when Sydney Mitchell & Wilson added various buildings, including the Crichton Memorial Church.