The four criteria for assessing class importance apply to stone hut circles as follows:
- Period (currency): Long lived. The tradition of constructing stone hut circles started in the second millennium BC and continued through into the Roman period at least; a total span of perhaps 2000 years. There is no evidence for the construction of stone hut circles in medieval times, although some were reused as they were, or modified, for occupation or as animal shelters in later periods.
- Rarity: Abundant. Stone hut circles are amongst the most numerous classes of prehistoric field monuments in upland Britain. They are, however, chiefly confined to present-day moorland areas.
- Diversity (types): Very high. There are many variations in ground plan and construction technique represented by known stone hut circles, most of which can be recognized at ground level from surface inspection; further subdivisions may be found if more sites were excavated. No chronological or regional significance can yet be assigned to the different types.
- Period (representativity): High. Because of the very long duration of the tradition of stone hut circle construction any assessment of representativity must be an average for the class as a whole. The range may be summarized as from "very high" in the early part of their currency through to "medium" in the late first millennium BC and early first millennium AD. Throughout their currency, however, stone hut circles represent a major source of information.
Assigning scores to these criteria following the system set out in the Monument Evaluation Manual, Stone hut circles yield a Class Importance Value of 42. This lies towards the upper end of the range of possible values (max.= 64). Examples representing the full range of types, and variations in size and orientation, must be included in the sample of nationally important examples.