About US

Start Point Media is a digital content creation company launched by Andrew Learmonth and Fionn McArthur in Orkney at the start of 2017.

With backgrounds in journalism, press and public relations, video production, photography and digital communications, we have more than twenty-five years of experience of working with, and helping to promote Orkney, its people and its products.

For our name we took inspiration from the distinctive Start Point lighthouse on the Orkney island of Sanday, where Fionn grew up. Lighthouses are beacons and help guide the way, and we believe this is what we can do for businesses both in Orkney and further afield.

We want to help you get your message across in a creative and engaging way. Orkney has such a wealth of unique, hard-working and talented businesses - we’re passionate about telling your story and, at the same time, promoting these islands to the world.

Andrew Learmonth

Andrew looks after the social media and content creation side of the Start Point Media world.

After returning home from University in Aberdeen in 2003 he has worked as a Press Officer with Orkney Islands Council, a Broadcast Journalist with BBC Orkney and a Digital Communications Officer with Orkney.com, with a year of travelling in North America thrown in for good measure.

With a passion for storytelling and for promoting Orkney, he jointly launched Start Point Media in February 2017 and now works from home, accompanied by his partner Gael and a slightly eccentric, but very friendly, Hungarian Vizsla called Ruby.

When not creating content you’re most likely to find Andrew in the swimming pool or trying to learn how to look after his back garden better.

Contact Andrew at andrew@startpointmedia.co.uk

Fionn McArthur

Brought up in the island of Sanday in Orkney, Fionn is Start Point Media’s resident cameraman and photographer.

A fan of island life but not of regular ferry or plane travel, he moved to the Orkney mainland and worked in roles as varied as stone masonry, peat-cutting and creel-making before gaining a degree in Scottish Music as a mature student at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.

He returned to Orkney in 2000 to work at BBC Orkney as a radio reporter, becoming Content Producer and Cameraman. His skills have seen him and his work appear on the likes of Reporting Scotland, the News Channel and various Radio 4 productions. It was his passion for visual storytelling that led to the formation of Start Point Media and his decision to jump full-time into the photography world.

A lover of the outdoors, he is now in his element, finding any excuse to include hills and coastline in his videos and photography. He also keeps up his fiddle playing and can be seen on stage at concerts across the islands. He lives in Kirkwall with his wife Julia and their two girls, along with Barney, the biggest little dog in Orkney.

Contact Fionn at fionn@startpointmedia.co.uk