The four criteria for assessing class importance apply to timber circles as follows:
- Period (currency): Restricted. The tradition of building and using timber circles seems to have been at its height around the turn of the second millennium RCYBC. Even allowing for the long life expenctancy of the structures represented by the posthole settings it is unlikely that the currency of this class of monument exceeded three centuries.
- Rarity: Very rare. Only three discrete timber circles are currently known with more or less certainty, and even counting those found within henges and henge-enclosures there are less than ten known throughout the country.
- Diversity (form): Low. Only two types of timber circle can be recognized at present on the basis of ground plan.
- Period (representativity): High. Timber circles represent one of relatively few classes of monument known from the late Neolithic period.
Assigning scores to these criteria following the system set out in the Monument Evaluation Manual, timber circles yield a Class Importance Value of 30. This lies nearly half-way up the range of possible values (max.= 64) reflecting the great rarity and antiquity of the class. Examples representing both identified types, and variations in size, must also be included in the sample of nationally important sites. It may be noted, however, that since so few examples are known all timber circles will be of considerable importance.