The Racecourse Inn

A convict-built coaching inn from 1860 in Longford, one of Tasmania's oldest towns. William Dean, a ticket-of-leave man, built it from handmade bricks to serve the racecourse next door — still the oldest continuously raced track in Australia. Three ensuite rooms furnished with antiques: Baltic pine ceilings, dormer windows, a twelve-foot king room with spa bath downstairs. Roses over the brickwork, a cottage garden, a wood fire, and a full cooked breakfast in the vaulted dining room. Your host Annabelle is a painter — her work is on the walls. Fifteen minutes from Launceston airport, near Woolmers and Brickendon.