A croft briefly seen in the distance (4)
I believe the answer is:
afar
'in the distance' is the definition.
(far away)
'a croft briefly' is the wordplay.
'croft' becomes 'farm' (I've seen this in another clue).
'briefly' means to remove the last letter.
'farm' with its last letter taken away is 'far'.
'a'+'far'='AFAR'
'seen' is the link.
(Other definitions for afar that I've seen before include "Not in this neighbourhood" , "Unusually distant" , "Many a mile" , "Remote" , "Way-out" .)