The plane of the wedge disclination loop is assumed to be parallel to the basal plane in hexagonal‐close‐packed crystals. The rotation axis of the loop lies in the basal plane. Closed‐form solutions have been obtained for the stress field and elastic energy of the disclination loop. Unlike the case of a twist disclination loop, there is a dilatational field associated with a wedge disclination. The strain energies of wedge disclinations are computed for some common hexagonal crystals. It is noted that for the same loop dimension and angle of rotation, the strain energy of a wedge disclination loop is generally larger than that of a twist disclination loop. This is mainly due to the fact that, for these materials, the Young's moduli along theCaxes are higher than those in the basal planes.