The last, and grandest, of Scotland's royal asylums was founded in Dumfries in 1838 by Elizabeth Crichton of Friars Carse, a wealthy local widow. Elizabeth Crichton's initial intention had been to found a university in Dumfries but she was blocked from doing so by the existing Scottish universities. The original hospital building, now Crichton Hall, was designed by William Burn and opened as the Crichton Institution for Lunatics in 1839. It became the Crichton Royal Institution in 1840. The Southern Counties Asylum, which was intended to provide facilities for paupers, was erected on the site in 1849 and subsequently amalgamated with the main facility. Elizabeth Crichton persuaded the phrenologist William A. F. Browne to become medical superintendent and to implement his innovative ideas of occupational therapy and art therapy. Browne remained at the Crichton for almost twenty years and made a decisive contribution to asylum psychiatry, setting benchmark standards in therapeutic administration. He also hoarded a vast collection of patient art. The Crichton became widely known in the twentieth century for psychiatric research under the leadership of German Jewish émigrés, including Dr Willi Mayer-Gross. Psychotherapist Ursula Fleming was educated at the hospital and Kate Fraser an early Scottish woman psychiatrist was a junior resident at the hospital. Among the people to have been treated there are artist Charles Altamont Doyle, William James Blacklock, Lydia Miller, and feminist writerDora Marsden. An unidentified female patient of Dr James Gilchrist featured as an illustration in Charles Darwin'sThe Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. The hospital was expanded in the late 19th century, when Sydney Mitchell & Wilson added various buildings including the Crichton Memorial Church which is a category A listed building. Further villas were constructed between 1910 and 1914 by Mitchell's assistant Ernest Auldo Jamieson, and yet further between 1923 and 1936. The hospital became the Crichton Royal Hospital in 1945 and it joined the National Health Service in 1948. In 1995 the Crichton Development Company was established to regenerate the redundant hospital buildings. The redevelopment saw several of the hospital buildings converted for business park use, while the central area was maintained as a public park. A golf course was developed to the west of the site, and a hotel and conference centre were opened. Prince Charles visited the site and unveiled a statue of Elizabeth Crichton in May 2000. The Crichton Development Company acquired a 125-year lease on the site in 2004 and Dumfries and Galloway College moved to a brand new purpose-built £40 million building within the grounds in 2008. The last of the mental health wards finally closed, concluding the site's use as a hospital, in 2013.
Courses
The courses on offer at the Crichton University Campus include business, computing, teacher training and nursing courses. The Crichton Carbon Centre, housed in the Rutherford/McCowan building, is one of only two places where the Carbon Management postgraduate degree is available in Scotland. The University of Glasgow offers an MA in Health and Social Policy, an MA Primary Education Programme with Teaching Qualification and a BSc in Environmental Science and Sustainability on the campus.
