The four criteria for assessing class importance apply to large regular stone circles as follows:

Period (currency): Long-lived. The tradition of constructing large regular stone circles probably started in the Late Neolithic and continued through to the end of the Eraly Bronze Age, a total duration of perhaps fifteen centuries.

Rarity: Very rare. About 28 examples are currently known, although excavation of stone circles may in future reveal more which belong to the class.

Diversity (form): Medium. Three main types can be identified on the basis of the presence or absence of associated features, either stone avenues or outlying standing stones and the number of circles present..

Period (representativity): High. Large regular stone circles are one of relatively few classes of Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age monuments. Although we do not precisely know their function the wide distribution and variety of associations suggests they were fairly important places in the lives of prehistoric communities.

Assigning scores to these criteria following the system set out in the Monument Evaluation Manual, large symmetrical stone circles yield a Class Importance Value of 45. This lies two thirds of the way up the range of possible values (max. = 64), reflecting the long currency and extreme rarity of the class. Examples representing the main types and those not yet disturbed should be included in the sample of nationally important sites. The number of extant examples is few so choice will be limited.